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His Royal Highness accepted tliis position, not as a mere 

 complimentary sinecure, but with, the fuU and avowed intention 

 of personally performing its duties, and the Society soon felt 

 the benefit of the new hand at the helm. He speedily perceived 

 the danger of the course on which the Society had latterly been 

 drifting. Time after time had the Council declared that they 

 must revert to the simple and inexpensive mode of action which 

 had proved so successful at the most prosperous epoch of the 

 Society, 1821-22; and no later than their Eeport in 1859, 

 pubhshed immediately after His Eoyal Highness's election, but 

 written before it, we find them laying down the following as then- 

 course of futm'e action, viz. : divesting the Chiswick Garden of 

 its ornamental character, and reducing it to one of mere utility, 

 abandoning the Exhibitions there, and quitting the house in 

 Eegent Street, hiiing a mere ofiice for business, substituting 

 Exhibitions in St. James's HaU for meetings at the Garden and 

 Eegent Street, and jjroviding ballots for plants, and more 

 extensive distributions than formerly both of plants and seeds. 

 These were the paUiatives relied on, previous to His Eoyal 

 Highness taking his place at the head of the Council Board. 

 Very different is the language in the Eeport issued twelve 

 months later. 



" Great retrenchment in a pubhc body was not a course 

 to be permanently adopted. It coidd only be effected by 

 inaction. The income at the disposal of the Council was 

 placed in their hands for the purpose of actively promoting the 

 interests of the Fellows, and was not likely to be maintained 

 unless that purpose, which was incompatible with excessive 

 economy, was fulfilled. 



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